Gold diadem with embossed decoration

Found on the skull of a skeleton

This highly decorated funerary diadem was found on the skull of
a skeleton in a tomb. In Late Bronze Age Cyprus, funerary mouth
pieces were also placed over the mouth of the skeleton. The forms
are of eastern inspiration, but the designs often show Mycenaean
Greek influence.

The decoration on this diadem was made by stamping sheet gold
with specially prepared punches that enabled the design to be
repeated. The two rows of figure-of-eight shields were inspired by
Mycenaean Greece. The bulls' heads are each crowned by a lotus
flower surmounted by a palmette. Bulls' heads were a particularly
common motif in Cyprus and may have had a religious significance:
models were set up on sticks like totem poles and bulls' masks were
worn by priests and perhaps worshippers in religious ceremonies.
There are also numerous figurines of bulls.

Earrings of gold wire, threaded with bulls' heads, were made at
the same time as the funerary diadems and mouthpieces.